Leavey School of Business News Blog

Business Today

Tuesday, Jul. 16, 2013 9:00 AM

Connie Rice, assistant director of academic services in the Leavey School of Business, delivered a presentation titled Creating and Growing a Peer Advising Program: The Experience and Best Practices of and Eight-Year Program at a National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) conference held at the University College Maastricht in Maastricht, Netherlands, last month.

“I was very excited to attend and present at this first international conference for NACADA,” Connie said. “It's always exciting and thought-provoking to exchange ideas with colleagues who are passionate about the same subjects that interest me around advising.”

Connie has attended many NACADA conferences in past years, and has presented at both regional and national conferences; however, this was the first international conference for the organization. Eighteen countries were represented with 220 participants in attendance. Her presentation so well-received that she was invited to be a panel member in a NACADA Peer Advising Webinar later this year.

“I've had requests from colleagues I met at the conference to share more information and materials from our LSB peer advising program,” continued Connie. “Likewise, I intend to reach out to administrators at other universities whom I met at the conference for information and ideas to help advance our use of technology in advising. This exchange of ideas and information really speaks to the value of attending and presenting at these conferences.”

Below is the abstract of Connie’s presentation.

A Peer Advising Program provides many advantages when used as a compliment to your existing advising program. Peer advisors are reliable, serve as excellent prescriptive advisors, allow faculty to concentrate on developmental advising, and are enthusiastic student ambassadors. The program also provides peer advisors with experience in leadership, service-learning and team-building.

Our program utilizes the volunteer services of 27 Peer Advisors to serve over 1600 students in a liberal arts business school. This presentation focuses on creating a high-impact, low-cost program, and provides suggestions for generating buy-in from faculty and administrative staff. We also share what have proven to be best practices for us in the implementation, training, and oversight of our eight-year program.